Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum tore into President Barack Obama today for apologizing for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base in Afghanistan.

&ldquo;There was nothing deliberately done wrong here. This was something that happened as a mistake,&rdquo; the former Pennsylvania Senator said on ABC&rsquo;s &ldquo;This Week.&rdquo; &ldquo;Killing Americans in uniform is not a mistake. To apologize for something that was not an intentional act is something that the president of the United States in my opinion should not have done.&rdquo;

The president&rsquo;s apology, which came Thursday as two U.S. soldiers were killed in retaliatory protests, has become the latest political football in the Republican primary contest, bringing foreign policy into a dialogue that has revolved almost exclusively around the economy.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is also running for the GOP nomination, said on &ldquo;Fox News Sunday&rdquo; that he did not approve of Obama&rsquo;s language.

&ldquo;With regards to the apology, I think for a lot people ... it sticks in their throat,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The idea that we are there, having lost thousands of individuals through casualty and death. We&rsquo;ve made an enormous contribution to help the people there achieve freedom, and for us to be apologizing at a time like this is something which is very difficult for the American people to countenance.&rdquo;

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appearing on CNN&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of the Union,&rdquo; defended the president&rsquo;s decision, comparing it to similar actions taken by his predecessor, President George W. Bush.

&ldquo;It was the right thing to do to have our president on record as saying: &lsquo;You know, this was not intentional. We deeply regret it,&rsquo;&rdquo; she said.

When asked about her emphatic prediction Saturday that Obama would be re-elected, the former New York Senator and first lady acknowledged that she had ventured too far into politics.

&ldquo;Probably my enthusiasm for the president got a little out of hand,&rdquo; she said.

Earlier this week, Newt Gingrich also weighed in, described the apology as &ldquo;astonishing.&rdquo;

&ldquo;If Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, doesn&rsquo;t feel like apologizing, then we should say goodbye and good luck,&rdquo; the former Speaker said while campaigning in Washington state. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;

Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, took the comments as an opportunity to ding Gingrich on his foreign policy credentials.

&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think a lot of people are looking to Newt Gingrich for foreign policy advice,&rdquo; he said in an interview today on CNN. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s a problem on the lunar colony, he&rsquo;ll be the first one we call.&rdquo;